Words That Wound

If you feel comfortable sharing your story about how Words Wound, we would like to hear from you. You can anonymize your experiences if you'd like, and we promise to maintain your individual confidentiality to the maximum extent of the law. The more detail you can provide the better. We use these stories to educate the world about the serious nature of cyberbullying with the goal of preventing others from doing it. We read every one of these stories. Your voice matters. As you can see below, you are not alone – so many others are fighting the good fight with you. Even though it may seem like there is nothing that can be done to stop the cyberbullying, don't give up.

Please note that any stories or screenshots sent through email or through wordswound.org to us can be used by us to continue to spread our message to get everyone to understand the depth of this issue. While form submissions through our site are anonymized, we will never share any personal, identifying information that you voluntarily choose to provide us in your communications to (or with) us. If you have any questions or concerns about this, please contact us.

Age of Person Involved

Gender of Person Involved

MaleFemale

State or Country where this took place

Share your story

SOME STORIES SHARED WITH US

The following is a small sample of the thousands of anecdotal stories and comments we've received from children and adolescents who have experienced cyberbullying. If you would like to anonymously submit a description of your cyberbullying experience to us, please do so in the form below. Please provide as many specific details of your experience as you can.

""There is a site right now on face book that is called "Calling all hoes" that seems to be a place for people to write, for all the world to see, any hurtful or sick thought about anyone that they don't like-- Face Book refuses to take the page down... I don't know what to do and I feel that something needs to be done before we are hearing on the news about some poor kid who killed themselves over what's being written about them on this vile site. Help..... Anyone know how I, we, can begin the process of taking this Facebook page down?" " - 17 year-old girl from US

""I have been friends with this person for 3 years now. Well best friends. I never thought she could do this to me. She's lying and getting our friends on her said. All i can do is watch. She's called me " Ugly RagDoll , Useless , Babied all my life , Jealous , I need to grow up , unpopular , I can go and riot under a rock! Who says these kinds of things? Only someone that is heartless and that has never been bullied before. They don't know how it feels i guess."" - 12 year-old girl from MI

""My sixteen year old son was cyber bullied on Facebook over a period of 8 hours. The event was so traumatic it caused my son to have an acute psychotic break and to be hospitalized in an adolescent psychiatric ward for almost a month. He is changed forever and will never be the same mentally. Internet bullying can hurt and affect people and kids need to know this. These kids are not being punished in any way and think the incident is funny! We know it is life changing." " - Parent of 16 year-old boy from MN

""Being I have been bullied many times before it makes me not want to live in this world anymore. I've been called probably every name out there.it really hurts. I sometimes contemplate suicide but i think where will that get me? i would only end up hurting the ones that i love."" - 14 year-old girl from WA

""I am a Facebook user and I have reported these two people who are female who are putting all kinds of things about me on their wall and Facebook apparently don't care because they have not done anything about the bullying so far before or now. I don't think that this is right they should take these problems very serious!"" - 36 year-old woman from Pawtucket, RI

""I've been bully by the same person for almost 4 years now [AND YES, IS STILL HAPPENING RIGHT NOW] and he is an underclassman at my school. I don't know what the problem that got into him, I wasn't even doing anything. I thought that underclassmen should respect upperclassmen. He added me on Facebook and I just randomly accepted him, then on my birthday he start to say bunch of random crap to me and bunch of harsh stuff. Then a week ago, I blocked him and deleted him from my contact because he keeps bullying me no matter when, even in class or online. You don't have no idea how it makes me feel. Being bully by the same person for more than 3 years is pretty sucks, whenever i see him, I always look myself down even though I'm a whole lot older than him, I feel frustrated."" - 15 year-old boy from Muscat, Oman

""Whenever I am on Facebook, I am in fear of my account being hacked, mostly for the fact that Facebook app Yoville is a very effective method to obtain information and be able to successfully hack Facebook. I can't help but play it because i have online friends that I chat with. I just hate the fact that there are people that hack Facebook accounts through yoville for pleasure."" - 18 year-old girl from NM

""It feels like you could die inside." " - 13 year-old girl from CA

""My friend is Jamaican. There are 5 boys in our class and they bully this girl because she is black. They tell her to go back to KFC and they call her "Black Momma". No, this problem is not being solved and I'm scared to help her and tell them to stop. They are very mean and dangerous kids. We are in the same class.7th grade. In the age group of 12-13 or possibly 11 or 14." " - 12 year-old girl from Brooklyn, NY

""A boy in my sixth grade math class called me mean names. Like four eyes, alien and more just for wearing glasses. It made me very upset. I don't think that kids who wear glasses shouldn't get made fun of. It's not someone's fault for wearing glasses."" - 11 year-old boy from MI

""I have been threatened that someone was going to kill me and told me to shut the fuck up here is a picture http://twitpic.com/48br8p"" - 12 year-old boy from WA

""I've been bullied on Twitter, by two people in the last couple weeks. I've told them to stop and to leave me alone, but they keep at it. After I told them to stop and leave me alone, I stopped communication with them but they still kept tweeting me. I feel like I can't say anything with someone on Twitter bullying me. I try to make it look like I don't care and all, but it never seems to work. I've reported and blocked them. Anyone have any suggestions please?" " - 21 year-old girl from USA

""How ironic that Miranda Cosgrove is being used as the celebrity face for anti-bullying, since I just told my 11 yr. old she can no longer watch "iCarly" because Carly and Sam (especially Sam) consistently bully "the less cool kids" on that show. Just watch one episode and you will see it. This is the problem. Everyone talks about stopping bullying, but they don't even recognize that THEY ARE THE BULLY!!!"" - 11 year-old girl from USA

""There's a game called habbo.com. Now there's a certain room in the called chromide club where the kids go to make fun of people. It's bad because they get your Facebook and make fun of the way u look. They spam your Facebook throughout the game and it hurts people's feelings."" - 13 year-old girl from USA

""My daughter has recently been bullied by her so called "friends" so badly that we had to take her out of the school and enroll her in a private school which allows us to home school since it is such a distance to travel. We approached the school which did nothing. They acted concern but did not act on the information. The bullying did not stop at school, it went on further onto Facebook. The girls thought they it was funny and tried to make it look like my daughter had been saying ugly things about them. The awful part was while they were doing this they were acting like they were her friend and staying at our house. They actually said they had been planning all of it!! We thought it would quit once we took her out of the school, but they did not quit. It has affected her emotionally. She feels isolated because they went throughout the whole school telling lies about her. People were texting her and calling her as well as posting on Facebook. She blocked so many people but it has really affected her. I feel for her safety and that it has really affected her self-esteem. As a parent, I am angry at the other parents and at the school system. We have been let down by this school system. I am considering contacting the Texas Education Association. This is a large school district which has turned a blind eye to my child's wellbeing."" - 16 year-old girl from TX

""some weirdo on twitter said some very hurtful things to me. Mostly about being a Christian. i don't want to go into it any more than that."" - 13 year-old girl from WI

""Well i always get bullied and i hate it i feel like killing myself sometimes."" - 13 year-old girl from Victoria, Australia

""I found my daughter was being cyber bullied a week ago. It had started a few weeks earlier but became extreme last week. This was part of an ongoing bullying campaigned by a group of girls at her school after a broken friendship. When it became Cyber I kept copies of the harassment which was lucky as I was able to take it to the school. She had been called vile horrible names, accused for things she hadn't done and set up to appear racist. There were threats of bashing. Finally she was provoked and she ended up using language out of character in retaliation. We rang the school who suggested the Police. We rang them and they said that as they are all under 14yrsold they couldn't do much. I then referred to the got schools policy which clearly stated that if cyber bullying could be directly related to the child and school then it was an issue the school had to deal with in order to create a safe environment for my daughter. Feeling i might be dismissed with "your daughter is too sensitive" or similar I wrote a very precise 3 page letter with 6 attachments cover 22 pages of evidence. Protocol was then followed which was satisfactory. I did however suggest that a very active learning program be set up to educate these children on how to use Facebook and how to change privacy settings etc. I explained that banning this technology was a useless endeavor and would not work so we need to work with it. I would love to be able to do more in the schools so have found your site fantastic."" - 11 year-old girl from Australia

""I was walking home from school when i got a text message that read 'you wait till tomorrow bitch you're going to die' when i got home i asked what was the matter she told me that she heard i told my cousin which was her boyfriend she was cheating on him (which was a lie). i tried to confront her but it failed i kept getting threating messages but it soon stopped when my cousin broke up with her."" - 18 year-old girl from Victoria, Australia

""My son has been receiving text messages that are being set up on a computer internet webmail address. The person is sending him little messages, not really threatening, but bothersome. The person set up a bogus email address and sends messages to his cell phone up to 50 to 60 at a time of the same message. It ties up his phone and is a problem. He has already had to change his number once but the person found it. We are going to go to our State's Cyber bullying division for help after local police could not do anything."" - Parent of 19 year-old boy from MS

""When I was 15, a freshman in high school, I was bullied over the Internet and at school. I felt like it came out of nowhere. One day the group of girls I called friends turned against me viciously over MySpace. They created a fake MySpace profile for me, which contained my cell phone number and instant message name. They photo shopped obscene sexual photographs of me and posted them in this profile. I was getting calls and began being stalked by strange men. These girls would make up sexually explicit rumors about me even though at the time I was a virgin. They would instant message me and tell me I was going to die. They were going to kill me. I was afraid to leave the house, to have friends, to pick up the phone. I lived in fear for so long. I knew they were looking for a fight and I refused to give them one so I deleted all known online presence and changed my number. I became recluse, a prisoner in my own home. Once I graduated high school I applied to college outside of my hometown to run away. Now, I am 22 and still have to live with the effects of these cruel girls. Trauma is hard to recover from but I know it is possible and I am stronger now than I have ever been. I am not that scared 15-year-old girl but I am still haunted by the girl I used to be." " - 22 year-old girl from Middletown NY

""A guy i know (he is a good friend of mine now) used to be pretty cruel to me in front of my friends, mocking me. But i just want to say to every victim out there, don't stop believing it will all get better. Stand up for yourself, fight, do whatever you can. Peace."" - 14 year-old boy from IA

""I think that cyber bullying is one of the worst things that a teenager may be exposed to. But in this age kids cannot act properly. The cyber-bullies are always not self-confident children who, in many cases, envy their victims. I was bullied twice. The first incident happened 2 years ago in a new social site- Formspring.me In this site you can send your opinion or question anonymously. One person sent me a message claiming that I was fake and that I wasn't a good friend. I was too offended to answer and I just disabled my account. The second incident happened a year ago. Those who I had considered my "best friends" tended to tease me often about my appearance. This teasing eventually led to harsh words exchanged over Facebook, which by a month time resulted in cyber-bullying. The bullying ended when I blocked them, and moved after the school year. So if you are bullied the best thing to do is to block those people or just find a different social network. Don't pay attention to the bullies because most of things they say are not true. However, if the bullying becomes very serious then an adult should be informed for help."" - 14 year-old boy from USA

""I was and still am being bully by girls that once where my best friends. They tease and taught me and call me ugly, and some not so nice names. They keep messageing me on facebook and saying i need to stop when it isthem. Yesturday i heard this story of a 13 year old boy who committed suicide because of the bullies i was crying becasue of what happens to me. i just want it to STOP! But every time i tell the pricipial he will not listen:(...it is very hard but i deal with it."" - 12 year-old girl from IL

""Cyber Bullying is a serious topic! I was bullied and began to cut myself... You may want to know why... time to tell I was bullied, stalked, and harassed. Never to my face but online the people who bullied me would make fake pages and put me on them saying I'm how and everything I'm willing 'to do' with a guy, but nothing on them were true...
They told people to walk up to me and ask me if I was a hoe, lesbian, dyke, slut, pregnant.. etc. I couldn't take it anymore I was on the verge of suicide and when you're going through this you want to handle it alone, but truthfully you can't. So I began to cut. For everything I was going through. I got help. I came clean to a trusted adult and they told my mom everything my mom got very upset and began to take pills to solve her problems. I got madder and cut even more then I finally said no! STOP I haven't cut in a month and 5 days... i use to cut every day. So to wrap this up I'm done cutting my mom's still on pills and I told the police (about the bullying) and guess what. The sites and texts are gone!!! :)"" - 14 year-old girl from MN

""On December 17, 2010, my daughter was a victim of cyber bullying.
There were four children involved in a chartroom within their e-mail accounts. One ring leader who seemed rather angry with my daughter started name calling, letting her know nobody liked her, and even went as far as wishing she would die in a hole. This obviously was a very hurtful conversation which led to my 11-year-old daughter to even consider death as an option. I thankfully monitor my child's accounts and was able to copy the conversation, and bring this conversation to my child's school. They acted quickly, and knew the severity of the situation. My hope is that there will be a positive outcome, and the four involved will have the opportunity to learn from this. Education and positive guidance are important tools to use as you do not want it to repeat, nor for you want it to fester in the minds of these young souls."" - Father of 12 year-old girl from VA

""Our Pastor was texting our daughter early morning and late at night. Then started FB emails telling her to stay in contact however she could. He told her how horrible her family is and what liars we were. Told her we did things just to make her feel bad. We spent $35,000,00 to get a Permanent Injunction prohibiting contact for 10 years. Now he is suing us for his attorney fees."" - Mother of 17 year-old girl from IL

""I stopped being friends with this girl who was just a bad influence on me, and she got a couple of her friends to hate me. On MSN they had a group chat room, and it was the two girls, and they were threatening to bully me at school, and I got scared about it. (The first girl) said if I came to school she would beat me up during recess, so during that day I hid in the bathroom at lunch."" - 12 year-old girl from AL

""I have an account on this site called Formspring, and what it was is I got cheated on by my ex, and someone was just like, 'You need to let him go,' and started cussing me out. People are harsh. People are very harsh. Then they were saying my articles suck."" - 16 year-old girl from AL

""I broke up with this guy because I wanted to keep our relationship secret. So after a week he all of a sudden started texting me and saying how me and my brother were brats and how I was a B****. He said some pretty nasty things. I asked him why he said it and he said it was because I broke his heart and he was getting revenge from that. Me and my friends often get bullied it's one thing if it's at school but to bring it home was another. We have to stick up for each other. I thought school was supposed to be safe."" - 16 year-old girl from USA

""When I was thirteen, a friend of a friend, whom I had previously contacted on good terms, decided that in the absence of my physical self, the bullying that used to go on in elementary school (I had become homeschooled since) should start a new online. She insulted me, telling me how glad she was not to be put in close proximity with my allegedly ugly face anymore and mocking me for my perceived sexual orientation. Whenever I thought I'd seen the last of her, out of the blue she would instant message me again just to share her opinion. I hadn't seen her in almost a year, but she still entertained herself by telling me how horrible I was. It was like she was conjuring up the school situation which I had tried so hard to overcome."" - 15 year-old girl from CA

""My daughter is a victim of cyber bullying she is 15 ,someone placed her picture on another person's face and wrote a lot of vicious, hateful, discusting lies about her and from one cell phone to another the hole school had it going around she didn't want to go to school anymore i had a place herin another school, her self-confidence, self-esteem her grades were failing, she got sick, the school didn't help us they just wanted us to not pay attention to this cruel behavior, as a parent i was pissed, hurt and confused, all i could do was try to talk to her but she said mom it's too hard to overlook when everywhere you walk people are pointing at you calling you names, i just took her away from the school changed her cell phone number and just pray." " - Mother of 15 year-old girl from Los Angeles, CA

""I had asked a guy to prom and posted pictures on Facebook of me and him. a girl that used to be my friend from where i used to live commented on them saying that i was desperate and i only asked him because i knew no one would ask me. Luckily, some of my real friends defended me, but i will never forget sitting in front of the computer screen crying because of something someone said."" - 16 year-old girl from AZ

""WELL I WAS IN THIS RELATIONSHIP WITH THIS BOY CEJAY AND HE STARTEDTO GET UPSET BECAUSE I DIDNT WANT TO DO ANY THING SEXUAL OR PHYSIACAL SO HE STARTED TO POST MEAN AND HERTFUL BLOGS ABOUT ME. HE EVEN COMMENTED ON ALLMY STATUS I WAS EMBARASSED. WHEN I CONFRONTED HIM ABOUT HE DIDNT EVEN CAREOR HAVE ANY REGRET BUT IT WAS A DIFERRENT STORY WHEN I GOT REVENGE BY TELLING THE SCHOOL PRINCIPAL ON HIM. THEN HE GOT UPSET AND DONE EVEN MEANER THINGS TO ME LIKE SEXUALLY HARRASSING ME BUT SINCE THEN IT BEEN BETTER BECAUSEI ERASED ALL OF MY EMAIL ACCOUNTS EVEN GOT OUT OF PUBLIC SCHOOL."" - 14 year-old girl from Columbus, OH

""I was the new girl in school and everyone just had to be mean to me. The girls in my class wrote my name on the bathroom stall saying i like two boys when i did not even like one of them. i had trusted two of the girls and they let me down. In the bathroom stall every single girl could see it. Luckily i told my mom and then she told my teacher and they got detention with the principal for a week."" - 12 year-old girl from Ontario

""Last year when i was 16 i was bulled because i liked this boy, my friend liked him too. So i started talking to him one day and my friend seen us so she stopped talking to me. She started spreading rumors about me. People us to beat me up after school. This went on for months until i told my father he went up to the school and told the principle. He suspended the kids now they don't mess with me anymore. If you are being bulled don't be afraid to tell an adult don't take matters into your hands don't let bullying happen if you see it tell an adult."" - 16 year-old girl from OH

""I was on Facebook when a friend of mine wrote on my wall that whenever I was in someone's life their life started to get fucked up. That hurt a lot because I trusted this person. He verbally bullies me whenever he gets the chance. I don't want to tell my mom because she'll make a big deal about it. I'm really getting hurt from this. Why does he have to be a wimp and say it online and not to my face? He'd be a man if he did."" - 15 year-old boy from MI

""Last year when i was 16 i was bulled because i liked this boy, my friend liked him too. So i started talking to him one day and my friend seen us so she stopped talking to me. She started spreading rumors about me. People us to beat me up after school. This went on for months until i told my father he went up to the school and told the principle. He suspended the kids now they don't mess with me anymore. If you are being bulled don't be afraid to tell an adult don't take matters into your hands don't let bullying happen if you see it tell an adult."" - 16 year-old girl from OH

""I was bullied on a site, like MySpace. I had a MySpace page devoted to me. I thought for the longest time about killing myself, until one day I realized that god put me on this earth for a reason.. And killing myself wouldn't so any good. My bullies put signs in my yard. What killed me is the fact that the school could not do anything because it was done online. I will never get over this. Even though it happened a few years ago."" - 16 year-old girl from IN

""Some girl in my daughter's grade started a rumor that my daughter is a lesbian, this got all over school, not happy with that she starting texting her with all this comments. I spoke to her mom and ask her to please make her stop. Well big mistake...she post comments on Facebook, mocking her. We will start counseling very soon, I'm afraid for my daughter safety, not sure how bad this is affecting her, and she tells me that she's trying to avoid them in school. This is a terrible experience that no child have to go thru."" - Mother of 14 year-old girl from Suffolk, NY

""People always make fun of me because of my weight. They say I'm pretty but i can't believe them. Last year i was being bullied by an 8th grader at my school. People would send me messages saying that I'm a disgrace i shouldn't be in this world. my best friend also told me that after we got in a fight, i cried for so long knowing my best friend thought that of me and what hurt me too was that she said it with hatred the look in her eyes was like she never wanted to see or hear from me again. i felt so bad i wanted to kill myself. i thought it was the only way out. I've been bullied since i was in pre-school. i thought it would go away by now but its only getting worse. My sisters even make fun of me but they say that their just playing around. They don't think it doesn't hurt me but it does especially coming from my sisters, it makes me feel even worse."" - 13 year-old girl from NV

""This girl I've known for a few years liked my boyfriend. She would always try to make me jealous by hugging him or anything she could think of. One day she posted a bulletin on MySpace all about him and I told her she shouldn't talk about him like that. She ended up harassing me online, calling me names. But when I went to school she would never say anything to my face, she denied ever saying anything to me when I confronted her in front of her friends. Then when I went back home she kept doing it over the computer. Her insults getting worse. Then I went to school and confronted her again and got in a fight. She hit me and I beat her up and now I don't know if that was the right thing to do. What else could I do?" " - 15 year-old girl from NV

""My 14 year old daughter is being cyber bullied now. Found a website she belongs to called "Formspring". This is where anyone can (even if you dont know them) can post a comment to you or ask you a question. Then you respond if you want. I was so appalled that you can post and ask questions anonymously and you have no have no idea who is posting. Many of these posts are telling my daughter that they hate her and she should just go kill herself. If you cant see who posts these things what options do you have? I have banned my kids from the computer now unless it's for homework. I have deleted their Facebook accts. At my wits end. My 24 yr old son has started a web page for this. And I think everyone should start one to try to pull together communities in fighting this."" - 14 year-old girl from USA

""I have a formspring account, which anonymously allows people to ask you questions. Instead of receiving what i thought would be nice questions, i constantly was sent comments like "you're ugly", "you're stupid", "you're a slut", etc. I have a total of over 1000 formspring "questions" and i would say that 95% of them were verbal abusing me and completely destroying my self-esteem. It got to the point where i couldn't stand going to school or even looking at myself in the mirror knowing that when people see me they think of a stupid, ugly, whore. People that stick and stones can break your bones, but names can never hurt you. But i have come to realization that the statement does not apply to the majority of teenagers. Verbal Abuse hurts."" - 16 year-old girl from VA

""I was picked on in the 5th grade by having my stuff pushed off the table or having my belongings stolen. it went into 7th grade where i completely lost it, beat up the kid who was the leader of the bullies, and now he gives me the respect i deserve. Violence isn't usually the way to go, but in this case it helped a lot."" - 14 year old boy from MA

""Hi my name is _____ i was targeted online on Facebook. One of my friends who i thought was my friend made a Facebook page that had the title _____ is pregnant. I'm not pregnant. I was so frustrated and upset because i didn't deserve this. My family and I am Catholic. One of my friends got brought into this. I went to the principle and he dealt with it. I have been a target my whole life how do i stop it."" - 16 year-old girl from PA

""I have a fifteen year old who suffers from anxiety and depression and just yesterday I filed a police report. My son has a Facebook account and a classmate was posting some very disturbing comments to my son he was telling my son to end his life already, threatening him that if he went to school he was going to kick his a#! and calling my son a spic and telling my son to go back across the border my sons status on face book is bisexual and the things they were saying about him were disturbing. I printed all the posts went to my local police dept. were the police officer told me that he was not sure they could do much since they are minors could you believe that! I insisted I wanted something done and charges filed he gave me a report number and would call me today. I called my lawyer!"" - 15 year-old boy from MD

""Teammates, unknowingly to the victim, accessed the victims phone and put embarrassing remarks on the victims Facebook page, which were attributed to the victim. It appeared that the victim was confessing that they were gay."" - 14 year-old boy from MD

""I came to college thinking everything would be all fun and games. I shortly found out it was not. My suite-mates, did not like me, for reasons I do not know. When they discovered I had a formspring page, they took the chance to say things to me that hit home, and then took actions against me in person. I felt hopeless, and the University I currently attend did not do anything about it. It was a low point in my life." " - 18 year-old girl from NY

""I try to ignore her but she turns everyone against me and makes my life miserable. She spreads awful rumors about me and i just can't take it."" - 14 year-old girl from TX

﻿

Kids seem to like to use IM to say swears and words they would never usually say out loud.